home → articles → Feed & Nutrition | Email to a Friend

Monsanto Establishes Fund For Plant Breeding

published: November 1st 2008
source: TAMU Ag Communications

COLLEGE STATION – Monsanto Co. has provided $750,000 to establish a graduate assistantship fund in plant breeding at Texas A&M University.

The Monsanto Graduate Assistantship Fund in Plant Breeding will be matched by Texas AgriLife Research and the university’s College of Agriculture and Life Sciences.

"Plant breeding is the primary foundation that allows us to develop technology that increases yields and helps farmers conserve natural resources," said Dr. Ted Crosbie, Monsanto's vice president of global plant breeding. "This fund aims to help provide Texas A&M University graduates with a solid background for careers as leaders and professionals in the plant breeding industry."

The fund will support up to 14 U.S. and international students who are pursuing doctoral degrees in the area of germplasm enhancement of agronomic and horticultural crops at the university.

At least one assistantship from the fund will be for a soil and crop sciences graduate student researching cotton improvement and/or cotton production systems.

"Our partnership with Monsanto will help assure that we are training our graduate students to meet the challenge they will face in the real world," said Dr. Mark Hussey, interim dean of the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences at Texas A&M and director of AgriLife Research.